Google's states of play

Google is a Washington powerhouse that shapes federal law, rewards congressional allies and boasts a new 54,000-square-foot office, just down the road from the U.S. Capitol. But the Internet giant quietly has planted its political roots in places far beyond the Beltway — in state legislatures and city councils that have become hotbeds for tech policy fights.

The company has hired an army of lobbyists from coast to coast as it seeks to protect its self-driving cars, computer-mounted glasses and other emerging technologies from new rules and restrictions, according to an analysis of state records. It’s an aggressive offensive meant to counter local regulators, who increasingly cast a skeptical eye on Silicon Valley and its ambitious visions for the future.

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Google this year has retained a quartet of lobbyists in Maryland to remove any roadblocks facing its fleet of driver-free Priuses. It’s tapped consultants in California, Utah, Georgia and other states where the company has tried to deploy its ultrafast Fiber Internet. In Illinois and beyond, Google has worked to battle back legislation that might affect Glass, its high-tech spectacles. And the tech giant has cozied up to leaders in New York state and New York City, while camping out in Massachusetts to seek changes in state tax laws.

“Google is an example of a company that has, in very short order, come to value political engagement in a very expensive way,” said Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation. “One of the things you see when a company becomes engaged in politics: They realize it’s not just federal politics, but state and local politics” that matter.

In a sense, Google agrees. “Technology issues are a big part of current policy discussions, not just at the federal level but in the states as well,” a spokeswoman acknowledged. “It’s important to be part of those discussions and to help policymakers understand new technologies, Google’s business, and the work we do to encourage economic opportunity.”

In Washington, Google is already a political behemoth. The tech giant spent more than $3.8 million to lobby federal lawmakers on privacy, patent and immigration reforms just in the first quarter of 2014, according to federal records. So far in the 2014 election cycle, the company also has donated $1.1 million to federal candidates. And it just took residence this month in a new Massachusetts Avenue office that’s within walking distance of Capitol Hill, symbolizing the company’s meteoric political growth since federal antitrust regulators investigated it in 2012.

But Google’s political tentacles reach far beyond the nation’s capital.

It’s especially evident with Google Fiber, its attempt to wire population centers with ultrafast, gigabit-speed Internet. The company aims to take Fiber to a total of 34 cities — possibly including San Jose, Charlotte and Atlanta — but only if it’s able to secure enough local interest along with changes to city and state laws. Already, Google has deployed its lobbyists and lawyers on the ground — long before it has summoned any shovels or dump trucks.

Google wants cities to map out nearby poles and cable lines. In some cases, it has asked regulators to change laws to permit the company and others easier access to that infrastructure, too. Google further seeks a point person in each Fiber location to handle and streamline the building applications process. And the tech giant has started negotiating contracts on where it can store the physical units that house fiber cables and deliver service to homes.

Armed with a regulatory wish list, Google has tapped its long-standing lobbyists in places like California, while registering this year a team of lawyers as its chief influencers in cities like San Jose and Santa Barbara, according to local records. And it has relied on a stable of government-relations minds in Oregon, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Kansas, Georgia and North Carolina to see Fiber to fruition, those states’ data show.

For Google, the aim is to get “cities to do things — not subsidize us, but do things … that lower the cost” to build and offer fiber service, explained Blair Levin, the architect of the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan. He’s now the executive director of Gig.U, which works to help bring next-generation Internet to cities and states.